Damage from Hurricane Michael is seen in Mexico Beach, Florida. If destroyed homes, lost livelihoods and mass power outages were not enough to be dealing with, Florida’s victims of Hurricane Michael are facing another potential problem – the state’s toxic red tide. In the days leading up to the monster storm’s landfall on Wednesday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) found cells of the Karenia brevis organism that causes red tide at two water sampling points close to Panama City and Mexico Beach where the storm swept ashore.